Ending castrationNot a tainted subject!

Annechien ten Have-Mellema, LTO NederlandConference Boars heading for 2018 - December 1, 2011, Amsterdam

Personal introduction• Pig farmer • Chairman of Dutch farmers

organization LTO Nederland, section pig farming

• Vice-chairman of Product Board for Livestock and Meat

• Chairman of steering committee of the Dutch project ‘Ending

castration of male piglets’

My farm

• Breeding farm: 320 sows, production of gilts and fattening pigs

• Family-operated • Group housing sows on straw

since 2000 • Fattening of non-castrated boars

since 1995

Focus of the Dutch pig industry

• Strong emphasis on farm animal welfare: license to produce, sustainability

• Anti-castration: high on the agenda • Strong support of the Declaration of Brussels: end of

castration in EU in 2018 • To achieve this, we need to realize:

– International market acceptance of meat of non-castrated pigs– No welfare problems on the farm due to fattening boars– Work on solutions for the EU in good cooperation with market

parties and ngo’s– Participation and support from supermarkets and food

companies

Declaration of Noordwijk (2007)

• Agreement between Dutch partners in pig sector

• Initiated by sector partners themselves after growing pressure of ngo’s

• Farmers, slaughterhouses, and supermarkets agree on goal to end castration in the Netherlands in 2015

• Castration under anaesthesia since 2008

Advantages of no castration for the pig farmer• Better technical results boars - barrows

– Daily gain + 20 - 30 g/ day – Feed conversion ratio - 0.2 - 0.3 kg feed/kg weight gain – Meat % + 2 – 3 %– Less infection risks– Less manure

– RETURN + 7 euro• End of inconvenient

castration labour

My own experience

• Boars since 15 years

• Do’s and don’ts when raising boars

• It works, but it is different!

How to manage boars

• Boars behave and react different• Challenges:

– Feeding strategy, feed composition– Housing and group size– Light: regime and intensity– Strategy at begin fattening period

Key to succes: cooperation on the farm between

pig farmer, researcher, feed company and veterinarian

Practical experience from yourself and your neighbour

How to move on?

• Pig farmers want to change • We can succeed if all partners in the pig meat chain

embrace the Brussels declaration Copa Cogeca signed

• Let us put together maximum effort in market acceptance

• Give us time to find solutions for boar behavior • Retail and ngo’s: join us towards 2018

Conclusion• Farmers want to end castration • Many initiatives and projects in many EU countries • Cooperate in the production chain to solve challenges in the

field of:– Market acceptance of boar meat – Boar management on the farm – Detection at the slaughterhouse – Preventive measures (breeding,

feeding, farm management)

• Steps are taken, results are promising, we know a lot, but not yet all.

• Let us move together towards ending castration

• .

Thank you for your attention

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